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Defense attorney: Grand jurors mislead in stabbing case

The defense attorney for a 30-year-old woman who confessed she fatally stabbed a friend in the neck last summer says important information was withheld from grand jurors.

Not only did prosecutors not tell jurors they could indict Yvonne Parra on something less serious than first-degree murder, but PCSO Detective Chris Hogan encouraged the grand jurors "to believe Ms. Parra was discovered by law enforcement drenched in the victim's blood," Michael Carrillo wrote in a recent pleading.

The reality is Parra had been beaten by the victim earlier in the evening and some of the blood was hers, Carrilo said.

On Aug. 25, sheriff's deputies were called to an apartment complex on South Camino de la Tierra. They found Parra sitting near the pool with a bleeding lip, swollen cheeks and a bruised eye.

Parra told the deputies she and Clayton Etsitty, 24, had been drinking, they argued and Etsitty hit her in the face. She told deputies Etsitty wouldn't get out of her face, kept verbally attacking her and she grabbed a knife and stabbed Etsitty in the neck.

Parra also told deputies she blacked out at some point during the night.

Carrillo wants Judge Howard Fell to force the prosecutors to take the case back to the grand jury and to tell grand jurors Parra can be indicted on less serious charges than first-degree murder and some of the blood was hers.

He wants the grand jurors to know Parra blacked out that night, too. Lastly, Carrillo says he wants Hogan and the prosecutors not to mislead jurors about the position of Etsitty's body when he was stabbed.

The state has not yet responded to Carrillo's motion and no date has been set to argue it.